formerly conducted in the County of Wicklow, 5 



with the general range of the veins, extended 178 fathoms in 

 length. 



" The mineral substances obtained by these various opera- 

 tions were subjected to experimental processes both by fire 

 and amalgamation ; but in no instance was a particle of gold 

 elicited from them either by the one or the other process. So 

 unsatisfactory a result led to the persuasion, that the gold 

 formed no part of the veins which appear in the mountain ; 

 and hence Government were induced to abandon the enter- 

 prise. 



" The same conclusion seems to apply to the tinstone, wol- 

 fram, and manganese, in discovering which the mining opera- 

 tions equally failed. What is, then, the primary source of these 

 substances found detached in the beds and banks of the 

 streams ? It is not improbable that they occur more or less 

 scattered and disseminated through the rocks of the mountain, 

 although it must be acknowledged that no discovery leading 

 to this inference attended the researches of Government. It 

 is, however, well known, that such occurrences are not un- 

 common in other tracts* ; and we may, then, conceive the gold 

 and the other metallic substances to have been detached from 

 their native seat, and to have been lodged in their present 

 position, in company with other alluvial materials, at the 

 time of the first formation of soil, upon the retrocession of the 

 ocean. 



" The total quantity of native gold collected by Government 

 amounted to 944 ounces 4 pennyweights and 15 grains, pro- 

 ducing when sold 3675/. 7s. H|</. ; the ingots having yielded 

 from 21f to 2 J J carats of fine gold, the alloy being silver." 



" § 107. But the discovery of native gold was not con- 

 fined to Croghan Kinshela. Trials were instituted by the di- 

 rectors in another mountain also, namely Croghan Moira, 

 about seven miles distant from the former mountain, and gold 

 was obtained there, though in very small quantity, the largest 

 piece not exceeding two and a half pennyweights in weight. 

 One trial was made on Ballycreen in the stream at the eastern 

 foot of the mountain, and minute particles of gold were found, 

 accompanied by magnetic ironstone, magnetic ironsand, com- 

 pact brown ironstone, cubical iron pyrites, and numerous 

 small garnets. Another trial was made on the western side 



" * See, for example, Ulloa's Travels in South America, vol. i i. p. 160, 

 English translation j Humboldt's Political Essay on New Spain; Char- 

 pentier's Beobachtungen uber die Lagerst'dtte der Erze; Von Buch's Geo- 

 gnostische Bcobacktungen auf Reisen durch Deutschland und Italien, vol. i. 

 p. 128—130." 



